VERSION

SYNOPSIS

APPLICATION VERSUS LIBRARY VERSUS SERVER

For most situations, Pinto is more like an application than a library. It is a tool that you use to develop and manage your code, but Pinto itself is not part of your code. Pinto also has a lot of dependencies, some of which may conflict with or complicate your code.

Pinto can also serve as the backend supporting a daemonized Starman server exposed to the wilds of the internet. Doing so opens the door to many additional security concerns. We suggest below some practices we hope will serve to minimize the risks of doing so.

INSTALLING AS AN APPLICATION

For the reasons above, I recommend installing Pinto as a stand-alone application in its own sandbox. That way, it doesn't pollute your environment with its dependencies. Nor will you pollute Pinto with changes to your environment, so Pinto will function even when your other environment dependencies are broken. And hopefully, you can use Pinto to help fix whatever broke!

All the dependent modules will come from a curated repository on Stratopan. These aren't always the latest versions of things, but they are versions that I know will work.

Step 2: Set up the pinto environment

The pinto installer generates a setup script for you. By default, it is located at ~/opt/local/pinto/etc/bashrc. To load that setup into your current shell, just give this command:

source ~/opt/local/pinto/etc/bashrc

To make these settings part of your everyday shell environment, just add that last command to your ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc or whatever setup file is appropriate for your shell.

If you wish to customize any of the other environment variables that pinto uses, you can place those commands in ~/.pintorc. If that file exists, the setup script will source them as well. See pinto for a list of the relevant environment variables.

INSTALLING AS A SERVER

If you will be running the pintod daemon exposed to the internet, it is suggested that you assume root privileges and proceed as follows:

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT SECURITY

Currently daemonizing the pintod server will run the starman workers as root. We hope to soon have the pintod daemon drop its privileges after initiating the master and before spawning the workers, so that the workers will run as the pinto user. Until that feature is in place, pinto repository administrators are urged to keep their installations safely behind firewalls, protected from the potentially hostile user.

INSTALLING AS A LIBRARY

If you're going to be hacking on Pinto itself, or want to try building on the API directly, then you can install Pinto straight into your development environment, just like you would do for any other module.

Just beware that Pinto has lots of dependencies. And if you subsequently upgrade any of those dependencies to something that breaks Pinto, then you might find yourself in a pickle. The whole point of Pinto is to help you manage your dependencies, so if you break Pinto, it won't be able to help you.

OTHER INSTALLATION OPTIONS

Naturally, installation procedures will vary from one environment to another. If this procedure doesn't work for you, or if you'd like to suggest a procedure for a different environment (e.g. Windows, Perlbrew, Strawberry Perl, etc.), then please contact me. Your contributions would be greatly appreciated.